New details emerge in kidnapping, sexual assault of Northridge girl

Prosecutors gave new details Wednesday of last week's kidnapping of a 10-year-old Northridge girl, saying one suspect acted as a getaway driver and the other took the girl from her home at knifepoint and later sexually assaulted her.

The revelations came as two men were formally charged in the abduction and one was arraigned.

Daniel Martinez, 29, who was arrested Sunday, appeared in court Wednesday afternoon in San Fernando, where a lawyer entered a not guilty plea for him to charges of kidnapping and burglary.

Tobias Dustin Summers, 32, who is still at large, faces those charges plus another 35 sexual assault counts. He could face life in prison if convicted.

A judge signed an arrest warrant for Summers on Wednesday, setting bail at $19 million. Los Angeles police have said they believe he might have fled to San Diego and shaved his head to change his appearance.

The two are accused of kidnapping the girl from her home early March 27. Prosecutors said Summers took the girl from her house to a car where Martinez was waiting.

Martinez drove "a short way," then left the car, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office. Summers later sexually assaulted the girl, prosecutors said.

The LAPD said the two had no apparent connection to the girl or her family.

The Los Angeles Times cited law enforcement sources saying the kidnapping did not appear to be planned and that Martinez had expected only to be the getaway driver in a burglary of the home.

Robbery Homicide Division detectives would not answer questions about the case Wednesday.

Martinez, sporting shaggy hair and a beard, wore dark clothes as he was escorted into a holding cell on the side of a courtroom. He said nothing to the court but spoke privately with his lawyer before the hearing.

The lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Robert Kayne, said afterward Martinez appears to be "less culpable" than Summers, but he said he is still waiting for more information.

Kayne, who had only been assigned to the case hours earlier, asked the court to order the LAPD to turn over records of two statements Martinez gave to detectives. The judge scheduled an April 10 hearing to discuss the issue.

Wednesday's court hearing came almost exactly a week after the girl was found. After her mother woke to a noise about 3:30 a.m. and discovered her missing, police and the FBI spent 11 hours searching for her.

Such "stranger abductions" are very unusual, and police launched a massive search that included officers from across the city. They canvassed two square miles around the girl's home.

She was spotted just before 3 p.m. that day walking shoeless through a Woodland Hills strip mall, about six miles from her house.

The girl told police she was abducted by two men, put in several vehicles and taken to a vacant home and a warehouse. They dropped her off at Kaiser Permanente's Woodland Hills Medical Center.

She had "facial bruising and lacerations," police said, and was treated at a hospital before being sent home.

Martinez was arrested early Sunday in the 18200 block of Rayen Street in Northridge, about two miles east of the girl's residence. Police listed his residence as West Hills, but a man at that home said Martinez did not live there.

Police have not said what led them to suspect Martinez or Summers, who both have long criminal records.

Summers has convictions for theft, battery, receiving stolen property and possession of explosives. He has also been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, robbery and auto theft, police said. Summers has been accused of child annoyance but is not a registered sex offender.

Martinez has been convicted of making criminal threats, burglary, theft, unlawful entrance, resisting or obstructing an officer and possession of a nunchaku, court records show.

LAPD records show Martinez has been arrested at least seven previous times.